A car raffle at a charity bazaar

A question from a charity that wanted to sell paid coupons for a car raffle to raise a relief bazaar's proceeds, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that the raffle is forbidden as gambling, and proposed instead entry tickets bought as a donation with no draw. ¹

A society running a bazaar said it was considering offering a car as a prize, drawn by the numbers of coupons sold to the public at a token price, with the randomly drawn coupon's holder winning it; the aim was to raise the bazaar's proceeds to send relief supplies to the Gaza Strip; it asked for the ruling. ¹

The Department answered that competitions in which the participant stands either to gain or to lose money are, in principle, forbidden gambling, which scholars count among the major sins. ¹ It said the draw described takes the ruling of forbidden competitions, and the ruling does not change whether the prize comes from the participants' money or is donated by an outside party, nor because the proceeds serve a lawful aim, since the end does not justify the means and every participant either wins or loses. ¹ It proposed instead that bazaar entry tickets be offered at a token price, such as a dinar, which people buy as a donation seeking reward rather than gain, with no draw on the tickets. ¹ It concluded that organising the draw is forbidden, and advised replacing it with a collection of donations for those in need in Gaza. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3876, dated 16 May 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.